U.S. Politics: A Song Of Mimes And Musicians

[Martell Spy]

It really looks like the President might be insane. There may not be a resignation. The men in white coats may hail him out of the White House with butterfly nets.

[Martell Spy]

Trump: We Should 'Change Libel Laws' To Stop Things Like Bob Woodward's Book

Once again, Trump implies he should have the power to censor content that is unflattering to him.

https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/trump-we-should-change-libel-laws-stop-things-bob-woodwards-book

 

Quote

 

On Wednesday morning, Trump tweeted his displeasure, and ending with a frustrated plea for "Washington politicians" to "change libel laws."

Isn’t it a shame that someone can write an article or book, totally make up stories and form a picture of a person that is literally the exact opposite of the fact, and get away with it without retribution or cost. Don’t know why Washington politicians don’t change libel laws?

 

 

[Zorral]

7 hours ago, Rippounet said:

But most importantly, I don't think it takes a genius to play Woodward like that, it only takes the willingness to lie. Which is, I believe, why the WPost published that transcript: it shows one of the basic tactics used by the current White House to manipulate information and image and the dishonesty and nastiness behind it.

What I was taking away from that is Woodward showing us how the orange nazi operates, particularly with non-stop lying and throwing anything into the mix to make things too chaotic to ever get straight answers.  Surely Woodward knew that at least, and that's why the transcript was made available.  I am not one of the Woodward faithful congregation by any means.  But, despite his acquired way too thick smug complacency about his own greatness and never being wrong -- fed no little by the non-critical acolytes -- he's a little too canny for not knowing a player playing a player? Especially a player with a rotten orange whine?

The real purpose of that call was Woodward covering Woodward's own ass -- with this transcript the orange nazi was not able to say he didn't know about the book -- which is what he kept insisting he did not know throughout.

 

[Kalbear]

4 hours ago, Altherion said:

Well yes, by definition "senior level" anything is going to need experience. The way this was handled in the past is that the best of the junior level people is promoted into the senior level position and a college student is hired for a junior level position. With your way, the junior level person is stuck with the inferior pay and there is no place for the college student.

It's not 'my way' - software is fairly good at being meritocratic (it's not perfect, but it is better than a lot of industries), and people get promoted based on their skill.

And senior people take time to develop, and there just aren't that many of them and the demand for them is huge. 
 

There's a reason silicon valley and seattle have absurd housing costs, because tech companies are throwing absurd money at these people to get them to work for them. We can't just wave a magic wand and get people who are good at math and computer science and work well under pressure and have years working with the tech stack people want, any more than we can magically create welders with 5 years of experience. 

[Ormond]

1 hour ago, IheartIheartTesla said:

Pressley and Capuano had very little policy differences between them, so I'm not sure it is resounding proof of the leftward lurch of the party (particularly in midterm years it counts for less).

In other news, the orange cheeto's approval dipped below 40 per 538's aggregation. Maybe all the attacks on Sessions and making fun of his accent (allegedly) are finally peeling off some supporters?

That's nice, but I don't think I'll really be impressed until it dips below 36.4%, its lowest point last December. 

[Kalbear]

1 hour ago, Frog Eater said:

The Republicans dont get a free passe either. They all preach tax cuts, tax cuts, tax cuts, but forget the other side of that is spending cuts, particularly to entitlements and the military. 

Again, citation needed on 'moderate' Republicans. The more moderate a Republican has been, the less likely they'll win their primary, much less their general election. This has been true since 2010, but it's especially true in 2018. 

[Frog Eater]

1 minute ago, Kalbear said:

Again, citation needed on 'moderate' Republicans. The more moderate a Republican has been, the less likely they'll win their primary, much less their general election. This has been true since 2010, but it's especially true in 2018. 

In Massachusetts 7th, no Republican is running at all. The Democratic Socialist is running unopposed. The Moderate Republican or RINO if you prefer would have won their primary if they had come forward to run. 

[Kalbear]

2 minutes ago, Frog Eater said:

In Massachusetts 7th, no Republican is running at all. The Democratic Socialist is running unopposed.

She's not a Democratic Socialist. Ayanna Pressly is a Democrat, just the same as the person she beat, and she admitted publicly that Capuano and herself would vote identically on the same things. The idea that she's pushing things to the left is Fox news fantasy bullshit that ignores what actually happened on the campaign. 

2 minutes ago, Frog Eater said:

The Moderate Republican or RINO if you prefer would have won their primary if they had come forward to run. 

So would the Neonazi. Your point?

[Frog Eater]

Just now, Kalbear said:

So would the Neonazi. Your point?

You're the one asking for a fucking citation, thats the fucking point

[Kalbear]

Just now, Frog Eater said:

You're the one asking for a fucking citation, thats the fucking point

You were the one arguing that you wanted moderate republicans to oppose (and presumably win) the election against these Democrats. I asked you to point to a single one who has done so. You can only bring up hypothetical examples; I can actually point to places where the only Republican who ran was an actual Nazi. 

So I'm still asking for a citation, since you've still not been able to provide an example of a moderate republican who won their primary, much less a general. 

Meanwhile, the moderate republicans who have existed are dropping like flies. Heck, the conservative ones are dropping like flies. The remainers are Trumpists, plain and simple. 

[IheartIheartTesla]

15 minutes ago, Ormond said:

That's nice, but I don't think I'll really be impressed until it dips below 36.4%, its lowest point last December. 

We are still a ways away from that, but considering the baseline for the last few months has been a solid 42, any trend away from that is welcome (if not anything else, just as a morale booster).

[Kalbear]

It is nice to see @SweetPea's prediction that his approval was going to be 50% and the Dem/Republican generic ballot would normalize based on one week of polling to go completely off the rails in the last two months. 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

23 minutes ago, Ormond said:

That's nice, but I don't think I'll really be impressed until it dips below 36.4%, its lowest point last December. 

Keep in mind though that while is approval was low with the public at large, at the time it was still very high among self-identified Republicans/conservatives. What I’d look for is when his support starts to drop among his base. Idk what the precise number would be, but I’ve heard it falling below around 70% would be the real danger point. Nixon was able to hang on until his supporters left him, and the same will be true of Trump, especially when you consider how completely he has taken over the party.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

23 minutes ago, Frog Eater said:

In Massachusetts 7th, no Republican is running at all. The Democratic Socialist is running unopposed. The Moderate Republican or RINO if you prefer would have won their primary if they had come forward to run. 

Probably not. I have admittedly not seen any hard data on the subject, but I suspect more extreme candidates emerge from the primaries of unwinnable seats, plus more moderate individuals don’t want the stain of a defeat on their record unless they are trying to increase their name recognition.

7 minutes ago, Kalbear said:

It is nice to see @SweetPea's prediction that his approval was going to be 50% and the Dem/Republican generic ballot would normalize based on one week of polling to go completely off the rails in the last two months. 

The sad thing is his approval would be well above 50% if he would just shut up and stop acting like a racists, misogynistic, petulant child.

[Week]

1 hour ago, Frog Eater said:

Certainly there are voters in the 7th District of Massachusetts that would feel better served by a Moderate Republican than a Democratic Socialist. Its half the city of Boston. Like I said, I hate seeing unopposed congressional races. 

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massachusetts's_7th_congressional_district

How well do you know the city of Boston and the general voting, racial, and socioeconomics of the neighborhoods/towns in the 7th? Just curious because your statement is valid if there are 2 voters that would prefer a moderate republican. That doesn't make what you are saying relevant or accurate in any meaningful way -- even less so, as I don't expect you have current, accurate knowledge of any of the above.

Especially considering that the Pressly and Capuano (who served 10-terms) are A: Both members of the Democratic party and B: Fairly closely aligned.

[Kalbear]

The statement is also true of neonazis. In Boston's case, possibly more true. 

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

4 hours ago, Mexal said:

It was not an interview. The book was already written. It was a courtesy call to let Trump know the book was written and that he tried to get an interview with him hence Trump and Woodward coming back to Woodward's inability to secure the interview.

 

4 hours ago, Rippounet said:

See, that's the funny thing. I did not find that Trump was "fumbling and stumbling around." On the contrary I found that he had surprising control of that conversation while Woodward, with his slow, droning voice, sounded hesitant and defensive.
In fact, I'll daresay that call probably achieved all of its objectives, as limited as they may have been on some level.
And to be clear: this call is mostly a big "fuck you." But of course, from the president of the United States to a journalistic legend, this says a bit more than that.
I think if you take the time to think about the entire thing it's possible to see it as terrifying.
 

An easy mistake to make, considering the content of the call, but it's actually Trump calling Woodward here.

Or maybe it’s a conversation between someone who has zero credibility and someone who does.  Of those two, guess which one has the power to order people to their deaths.  We should be frightened, not evaluating this like debate team.

Aside from his rabid supporters, Is there anyone who takes anything out of Trumps mouth seriously? Between “GDP less than zero” and claims of coining (or never having heard of) the concept of “pump priming” in economics, his statements on the economy should be treated with horror, not evaluated for their insight.

[SweetPea]

1 hour ago, Kalbear said:

It is nice to see @SweetPea's prediction that his approval was going to be 50% and the Dem/Republican generic ballot would normalize based on one week of polling to go completely off the rails in the last two months. 

I said no such thing. Trump's approval seems to have an upper limit of about 44-45%. He would need a major victory to rise above that. Recently, his approval has certainly taken a hit. According to RCP, he's still at 41.5 though, so I wouldn't jump the gun and declare this a catastrophy for Republicans. It's not looking good for them, but there's still time. Trump needs to deliver on his promises if he wants to have a succesful midterm for the Republicans.

[Mexal]

NY Times just posted an anonymous essay from a senior admin official within the White House. Some serious cowardice here.

 

[Ormond]

25 minutes ago, SweetPea said:

 It's not looking good for them, but there's still time. Trump needs to deliver on his promises if he wants to have a succesful midterm for the Republicans.

Which "promises" do you think he can reasonably deliver on in the mere two months we have before Election Day?